The purpose of this descriptive epidemiologic study is three-fold: 1. to determine the prevalence rates for primary and secondary coronal caries in an adult population of dental patients, 2. to continue the development of an epidemiologic technique for collecting oral health data on adults using practicing dentists and their patient populations, and 3. to specifically determine the compliance rate of participating dentists regarding their inclusion of all patients vs. selected patients in the collection of the requested data. The proposal epidemiologic data collection technique is specifically designed to provide a feasible and economical method for obtaining oral health data on adults. The proposed technique first obtains the endorsement and cooperation of an urban dental society which provides a membership roster. Then a 15% randomly selected sample of dental society members are selected for participation in the descriptive epidemiologic survey. Following telephone solicitation for enrollment (no substitutions if a practitioner declines), simplified and specifically designed data collection forms (which have been pre-tested in dental offices) and graphic illustrations of scoring rules and accompanying explanatory sheets are mailed to the enrolled dentists to familiarize them with the data collection process. The data is collected for an intense but brief one-week period in each office during a specified week by each of the enrolled dentists. The data collection form is designed to be completed in 2--3 minutes. Data analysis is conducted using both Fortran and SPSS computer programs. Descriptive epidemiologic patterns of prevalence rates of adult coronal caries will be presented by age group, by sex and by tooth-type. Additionally, compliance of the participating dentist with the request to collect the data on all adult patients seen during the one week data collection period will be ascertained by a review of appointment records and interviews with individual dentists. Three previously conducted pilot studies have each achieved a participation rate of approximately 90%. The refinement of this epidemiologic data collection technique could provide an economical and feasible method for the collection of a wide range of oral disease rates in adult populations.